


Just One Night of Peace and Quiet

by 0palite



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Blood, Minor Injuries, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 07:07:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26349073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0palite/pseuds/0palite
Summary: Dib is late getting home from Skool, and Gaz is left home alone. Good thing she isn't worried about him at all, so she can enjoy the peace and quiet.Written for the Moo-Ping 10 server writing contest 2020.
Relationships: Dib & Gaz (Invader Zim)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	Just One Night of Peace and Quiet

Gaz was having a comfortably lazy afternoon. Stretched out luxuriously across the entirety of the couch, she thoughtlessly and effortlessly cleared level after well-memorized level in Vampire Piggy Hunter 2.

In fact, something about this setup was a little _too_ perfect.

For the first time in hours, Gaz set down her GS2 and propped herself up on her elbows. The Membrane Labs branded clock on the wall read 6:43 PM, and it was Friday, which meant it was well past the time for Dib to come rolling in to monopolize the TV for hours, flapping his noise-hole ceaselessly while blasting the newest Mysterious Mysteries. Yet, strangely enough, the entire house was silent.

A blip from her screen caught her ear. In her distraction, she’d forgotten to pause her game, and an enemy piggy had knocked into her character and taken away a single point of health. She flicked the power switch. There went that run.

She’d been meaning to try out a new game on nightmare death mode, anyway, and what better time than now, when she could take advantage of the silence? She swapped out cartridges, rebooted her game, and thought nothing more of her brother’s absence.

Hours passed. She ordered pizza and enjoyed it in solitude. The orange sunlight filtering in through the closed window blinds deepend, then faded, yet silence still pervaded the house. It was just as well. She was halfway through her run now, and the longer the peace lasted, the better. She got up, crossed the room to turn the lights on, and then settled back in to keep playing. Periodically, she found herself checking the time. 10:50, 11:30, 12:05...

Gaz was no stranger to all-nighters. It was a Membrane thing, really. Nobody in the family liked to sleep on unfinished business, and she was no exception. She had no reason to stop now, not when she was almost at the final level and still in her groove. The only reason she kept flubbing her combos was because of the heightened difficulty level, and not because she kept looking up at the clock.

Eventually, Gaz reached the final boss room. Ultra Pigulon unfurled from his crypt, and, impatient, she mashed through the unskippable text scrawl.

“Ah, yes, VOXELROT, finally it is we meet in the conquest of battle...”

Thud!

Gaz was up from her seat before she even registered what she’d heard. She crossed the room in two quick strides when she heard the door handle jiggling, and threw it open to see none other than Dib.

He startled so badly at her intrusion that he fumbled and dropped his keys. “Ack! Oh. Hey, Gaz.” 

The first thing Gaz saw was the black eye. The right side of his face was all swollen and purpled over like he’d been on the receiving end of a sucker punch. On a second glance-over she noticed he had dried mud caked on his clothes, and the sleeves of his coat were shredded and smudged brown. All in all, he looked like garbage.

“You look like garbage,” Gaz said, but she nonetheless stood to the side to let him in. He limped his way across the room and flopped over onto the couch.

“You won’t believe what Zim did today!” he shouted as soon as he was settled. “He got all the squirrels at the park together, infected them with some kind of evil—”

Gaz tuned his tirade out. She was more focused on watching him attempting to take his boots off while he talked. The right one came off fine, but he was having some trouble with the left, enough so that he had to pause his ranting about Zim hijacking an ice cream cart to hiss out his pain.

“What’s up with your leg?” she asked.

“I think I sprained my ankle,” Dib grunted. “Let me just—” He yanked at the boot again, and it popped off. “Ow!”

He heaved a shuddering sigh, shrugging off his jacket before leaning back into the couch, lifting his leg to prop it up on the table. Gaz could see the swelling even through his sock, and, now that his arms were bare, she noticed they were riddled with cuts. 

Also, he was resting his filthy socks mere inches from the box of cold pizza she’d left on the table.

Stupid, inconsiderate Dib. She wanted to hit him to make herself feel better, but he’d already gone and gotten himself beaten up…

Without a word, she turned and walked out of the room.

She wasn’t really sure why but instead of just going upstairs to bed, she turned at the last second, went into the kitchen, and took two ice packs from the freezer. She grabbed some hand towels and a packet of bandages from the bathroom on the way back. Arms now laden with supplies, she reentered the living room just in time to see Dib helping himself to her cold pizza. She exhaled through her nose and decided not to comment on it.

“Hey,” she simply said. Dib flinched and whipped around.

“Oh, Gaz! I thought you went up to bed. It’s already—” Dib looked at the clock. “3:16... Why are you still up?”

“Was playing Vampire Piggy Mystery Dungeon,” Gaz said. “Here.” She held out one of the ice packs.

Dib blinked stupidly at it. “What, do you want to hit me with it?”

“It’s an icepack, stupid.”

“Oh! Uh. Thanks.” He took it, and leaned forward to touch it to his ankle, cringing at first, then slowly easing into it. Gaz handed him the second bag, and he pressed it to the swollen side of his face.

Now that that was taken care of, Gaz settled on the couch and set the first aid kit beside her. “Now give me your arm,” she said.

“What, why?”

Gaz didn’t bother asking again. She simply yanked his arm to the side, ignored his yelp of protest, and, keeping a firm grip, dug into the kit and got to work.

She settled into a rhythm. Wipe at a cut, ignore Dib complaining “that stings!”, unstick a bandaid from its paper backing, press it on, repeat. At the very least, Dib stopped making annoying noises after she started on the second arm, so she could just go on autopilot until not a single speck of red remained under the smattering of bandages.

Satisfied with her work, she brushed the paper bits off her lap and stood up. “All right, done.”

Dib didn’t answer; he’d already dozed off. His head was lolled back, mouth open and drooling. His forgotten ice pack was melting onto his shoulder, so Gaz picked it up and set it on the table before padding across the room to dim the lights.

In the now dark room, she saw light shining up from between the couch cushions. Right, Ultra Pigulon was still waiting for her. She should really finish what she started, while it was still nice and quiet.

She walked back, and, careful not to jostle the couch too badly, fished her console out from between the cushions. The final textbox was blinking up at her, waiting for her to initiate the battle. For a long moment, she merely stared.

On second thought, maybe it could wait until morning.


End file.
